A project to optimise wide area network (WAN) performance and accelerate applications for the joinery company Swartland Boudienste and its national branches has been completed by the technology solutions division of the JSE-listed Square One Solutions Group.
Square One technology solutions business development manager Oscar Frutuoso said a decision was made to investigate application compression and acceleration devices based on the fact that simply buying more bandwidth would not necessarily improve the performance of applications across the WAN connecting five branch offices.
"The delivery of applications to the Swartland branch offices was becoming increasingly difficult and lack of capacity, latency, packet loss and congestion were just some of the problems that were contributing to inhibiting application delivery."
Swartland decided to evaluate solutions that would result in traffic optimisation and better utilisation of the available bandwidth to branch offices.
"Automation and application traffic management solutions that bridge the gap between networks and applications then became a priority for us," said Swartland IT manager Danie Jordaan. "The goal was to not only improve response times and deliver the performance necessary to support WAN applications to the branches but to also reduce costs."
Square One implemented various solutions on a POC (proof of concept) basis and to determine which solution would best suit Swartland's needs. A list of deliverables was developed to determine the success of the POC and included the ability to provide QOS (Quality of Services) from the applications traversing the WAN as well as the ability to access reports on how each application was performing.
"Once we were satisfied that all of the criteria were met, the Square One solution went into production phase and the remaining sites were deployed," said Jordaan. "The desired results were achieved, giving us the ability to effectively manage the traffic on the WAN and apply the correct QOS based on the priority of applications. The solution also generates useful reports on traffic patterns and restricts non-business applications."
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Square One Solutions Group is listed on the software and computer services sector of the JSE Limited. It focuses on providing niche, vertically applied technology solutions, has a national footprint and more than 22 years of experience in the South African market. The group's primary solution offerings encompass law enforcement and authentication, industrial printing coding and marking, infrastructure and facility solutions, system integration services and telecommunications and service provider solutions, all supported by a tailored suite of finance and leasing solutions and services. The key target market is enterprise, SME, corporate and government clients and the group focuses on coupling innovation, technology and service to achieve value for clients as well as superior returns and earnings growth for shareholders. Square One Group also distributes document solutions, colour input and output devices and provides 24x7 national support and service. For more information, visit www.sq1.co.za.
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